THE WRONG WILLIE JONES SPENDS 3 MONTHS IN JAIL
For the first 33 years of his life, Willie Jones says, his name never got him into trouble. But last June, mainly because he had the same name as a man wanted on drug charges in Manhattan, Mr. Jones, after being arrested on a charge of evading a subway fare, was wrongly identified through a computer name check and imprisoned for three months on Rikers Island. Law enforcement officials acknowledged that no fingerprint comparisons were made to determine whether Mr. Jones was the Willie Jones who had been arrested on felony drug counts in March and, while free on parole, had failed to show up for a court hearing. Mr. Jones said Legal Aid Society lawyers who represented him refused to believe his protests that he was a victim of mistaken identity. Instead, he said, they offered him plea bargains from prosecutors for a reduced sentence if he pleaded guilty to the drug charges and avoided a trial.